Teleco

A bridge between past and future

We met with Raul Fabbri, one of the company’s CEOs, to talk about how technology is changing on camper vans. And how the company is preparing to take on the evolutions of the sector

Words and photo Paolo Galvani

Alifetime devoted to aerials. This is how we can sum up the career of Raul Fabbri, CEO of Teleco Group with his partner Vittorio Simioli. He started designing signal amplifiers for home reception systems after graduating in 1974. He was hired as an employed by SEL Elettronica that was a very small company at the time. To grow, it needed sales expertise and so Fabbri and Simioli decided to take matters into their own hands, making the company evolve, becoming partners and changing its name. They decided to enter the caravanning sector in the 1980s with the first omnidirectional terrestrial aerial. This was the starting point for the success of the Teleco Group. Today, the company is a European leader in the TV reception sector, with satellite and terrestrial aerials, digital receivers and televisions. It evolved over time to other technological fields, such as cameras, air conditioners, generators, batteries, solar panels and communication systems. We talked with Raul Fabbri about the technological evolution we are experiencing in the world of recreational vehicles, where the first hurdle to be faced is the switch-off of the current TV transmission technology. “DVB-T2 is a huge transformation,” Fabbri said. “Virtually all non-compatible televisions will stop working because this is a complete structural change, an entirely different system. The current DVB-T uses MPEG4 encoding, while the new standard – called HEVC H265 – uses a different type of compression determined by the fact that the programmes need more bandwidth with 4K. Furthermore, a portion of the frequencies used until now for TV will soon be assigned to the 5G system and this will reduce the bandwidth available for TV broadcasting even further.” The situation is varied in Europe, with countries such as Germany that have already completed the transition and others, such as France. Italy, Spain and Great Britain are halfway there and the switch will be concluded within a few months. In principle, replacing a television set on a recreational vehicle is more expensive than at home, the size being the same, but Teleco Group has the solution ready. “Instead of changing the TV, you can simply use an additional decoder and we have products readily available, some of which

Raul Fabbri

Below: automatic Sat systems (left) and air conditioners (right)

are 12-volt devices, compatible with DVB-T2”, Fabbri explained.

Aboutcamp BtoB: What are the biggest challenges of the aerial industry today?

Raul Fabbri: There is not much to worry about with satellite technology. The signals are strong and the footprints of the satellites well defined, although sometimes determined by political choices. Some countries, like Great Britain, prefer a very narrow footprint and consequently, there can be reception problems even in Northern France, while others have chosen to offer their citizens a card for decoding programs that can be used throughout Europe or even in North Africa. The next big evolution is web-related and this implies new issues, especially with the 5G revolution, that will complement the current 4G. Paradoxically, the more the technology increases the frequencies on which it works, as in the case of 5G, the closer it gets to the satellite model, meaning that any object standing between transmitter and receiver becomes an obstacle. By the way, the further we progress, the more components in homes and perhaps even on RVs will be ready for the IoT (Internet of Things), to be controlled without WiFi, directly via 5G. We want to allow camper van users to receive land, satellite and cellular signals.

Aboutcamp BtoB: What technological component has grown the most in recent years?

Raul Fabbri: We have always invested mainly in satellite technology in Teleco Group but the time has come to tackle the web and develop new skills in a more determined way.

Aboutcamp BtoB: These technological matters go hand in hand with energy issues and Teleco has been active for some time with several product lines. What will the impact of lithium batteries be?

Raul Fabbri: Definitely huge. We established contacts with the first companies that were developing lithium modules at trade fairs in Hong Kong some six or seven years ago. Battery packs were still limited to 20 or 30Ah. The individual elements had a voltage of 3.2 volts and it was enough to put four of them in series to make a 12-volt battery. The problem with lithium was temperature control to avoid the risk of explosion, so it was essential to have a system capable of controlling charging and discharging properly. BMS (Battery Management System) were created to manage batteries more effectively and today the technology based on lithium-iron-phosphate (LiFePo4) allows a much more effective temperature control. I am personally convinced that the race to increase voltage is now on (like we are seeing in the car world) because if you raise the voltage, you get more energy at the same current. That is the only way to develop high power.

Aboutcamp BtoB: How are you organised in Teleco for research and development?

Raul Fabbri: Until 2000, we more or less did everything in-house, from design to production, using only a few subcontractors in the area. When you develop globally, competition is not only domestic and the risk that a customer much larger than you may decide to do things by themselves increases considerably. That is why we started looking around, also in China, aware as we have always been that it is the mindset that makes the difference because this is what gives you a competitive edge. If you just copy you will always fall behind. Since then, we changed our working system, developing research and development in-house to the maximum. We equipped ourselves with 3D design software, bought a 3D printer for prototyping and hired several engineers. Once the project is done, we can decide whether to produce internally or outsource production abroad. Whether in China or Italy the bottom line is the same. The key thing is to do the last step – quality control – in-house. For us, quality control is both up front, in the design phase, and down the line, when we receive the finished products. All outsourced products must pass the Quality Control System within Teleco, before being placed on the market. The result is that we have an extremely low failure rate, certified through ISO 2001.

Aboutcamp BtoB: You work both on the end-user side and with the OEMs, that are worth about 80% of your total revenue, correct me if I’m wrong. How do you organise customer care?

Raul Fabbri: You cannot work with OEMs unless you guarantee customer care. It is one of our strengths. In Germany, we have three main service locations – one in the north, one in the centre and one in the south – and about 20 service points nationwide. In France, we have opened a branch in Nantes in addition to our main office. We have 10 or 12 centres in Great Britain, two in Spain and some 10 to 15 some across Holland and Belgium. We offer direct assistance to end-users only in Italy. Elsewhere, customer care is through the retailers because most of the time problems arise during installation. Our job is to train them and give them all the support we can. Without customer care, you will go nowhere and this is why we are strong.

Teleco PhoneBoosterVan 2.0

Teleco’s SMART TV wins a place on the podium in promobil tests

Prestigious German magazine promobil recently conducted in-depth tests on eight different European brand televisions for campers and caravans. The outcome, published in the 4th April issue, awarded the Teleco TEK 24DS Smart TV the “Recommended Product” (Kauftipp) mark due to its excellent value for money. The tests looked at televisions with a screen size of 22 - 24 inches in the 399 - 639 euro price range. Each television underwent a series of rigorous technical tests to establish performance on the basis of seven parameters that included audio and video quality, user-friendliness of on-screen and remote control browsing, speaker power and design. The total points awarded across the various categories saw Teleco score an excellent 79 points out of 100. “We know that the German promobil journalists take these technical tests very seriously”, stated Vittorio Simioli, one of the two founders of the Teleco Group. “That’s why we’re proud to see such great results, which underscore the quality of our Smart TV models. Note also that these TVs incorporate both the DVB-S2 satellite receiver and DVB-T2 HEVC terrestrial receiver and have a control system for our satellite antennas, a Teleco exclusive. While this distinctive feature of the TEK TV range was not taken into consideration in this specific test, it is nevertheless something that only we provide and includes two special keys on the remote control for the Flatsat and Telesat satellite antennas: Automatic ON lets you automatically raise the dish and lock onto the last satellite in the memory while Sat PARK returns the dish to the parking position”.